Learning Through Discovery and Technology:
Empowering Engineering Undergraduate Students to Engage in Multidisciplinary Collaborative Activities

Project Lead: Nina Robson and Jidong Huang

 

The goal of the GI 2025 Innovation Grant is to explore mechanisms of improving graduation rates and lowering the equity gap for Mechanical Engineering (ME) and Electrical Engineering (EE) majors through introducing virtual multidisciplinary authentic hands-on team experiences within a novel collaborative Automation, Robotics and Technology (ART) course. Some of the created ART course virtual modules will be further integrated within required ME and EE lower division courses to allow students more course-taking flexibility, as well as access to online interactive multidisciplinary hands-on learning materials, that enhance traditional lecture-based engineering courses.

It is expected that the proposed activities will serve as a foundation for a curricula that better prepares ME and EE students for original contributions in required capstone courses and multidisciplinary upper division research experiences, as well as strengthen preparation for graduate research and/or future STEM workforce.

A successful approach is expected to advance the GI 2025 goals through (i) directly impacting between 80-120 ME and EE graduating seniors per year; and (ii) indirectly affecting much more students, if the development of the hands-on learning ART modules in lower-division required courses is successfully utilized.